Music Business: Associations

ASCAP is a membership association of more than 330,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. ASCAP's licensees encompass all who want to perform copyrighted music publicly.

BMI is a performing right organization: It collects license fees on behalf of its songwriters, composers and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed.

CDSA, formerly IRMA, the International Recording Media Association, is the international content protection association. It serves as the worldwide forum advocating the innovative and responsible delivery and storage of entertainment, software and information content.

Represents more than 1,300 record producers and distributors. Activities cover anti-piracy, new technologies, promoting national legislation and international conventions, and education and advocacy.

Serves as advocate for the common interests of merchandisers and distributors of music, sell-through video and entertainment software, industry, and public policy makers.

Represents more than 600 American music publishers on questions of music copyright and licensing. The Web site includes an online newsletter, information on relevant legislation, and statistics. The site is also home to the Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), an information source, clearinghouse, and monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights.

The premier organization for honoring achievements in the recording arts, and supporting the music community. Each year, voting members decide who receives a Grammy.

Aims to protect intellectual property rights and the First Amendment rights of artists. The Web site includes extensive information on technology, legislation, censorship, piracy, Web licensing, and international trade.

SESAC is a performing rights organization designed to represent songwriters and publishers and their right to be compensated for having their music performed in public.